First Team

Adam: Important win

Adam Eckersley insists Saturday’s win over Alloa shows the special character that exists inside the Hearts dressing room.

The left-back’s 86th minute free-kick was deflected into the net to give the Jambos a precious three points on the road, and Adam revealed he’ll be claiming it anyway.

“I stepped up and I know those balls are terrible to defend when you’re running towards your own goal, especially when you play them in at head height and with pace,” he said. It’s not a nice ball to defend. I couldn’t actually see what happened!

“I couldn’t see if it went straight in or if it hit off a knee or what. But that’s just the nature of the game. Of course I’m claiming it anyway, they don’t come around very often! You’ve got to, I think. I’ve scored six or seven in my career, but I’m more of an assist guy.”

Adam admits there was a feeling of relief once the ball hit the back of the net, as that win means Hearts have opened up a nine point cushion at the top of the Championship.

“I was just relieved to see it go in,” he said. “It was a tough game. We felt that, especially when we went down to ten men at the end.

“It was very, very difficult; a difficult place to come and a difficult surface. It just shows the character of our team that we could go down to ten men and still get a result, and a very important result. Everyone’s very pleased.

“These teams on these surfaces is not ideal, especially for passing teams - it’s very slow out there on the astrof turf. I would’ve preferred it to rain before the game to give it a bit of wet but these are the conditions and we ended up getting the three points anyway.

“Like I said before, it just shows the character and the strength of our team.”